WETRIED TRANSLATIONS
Is It Bad That the Main Character’s a Roleplayer?
[Translator – Aren]
◈ Chapter 359 The Left Eye That Remained Shut (7)
Bang!
Berserk shot to her feet hard enough to make the Holder seem ready to collapse. Something dark and ominous that had been knotted deep in her chest had finally spilled out.
"W-wait—”
Smart people were always like this. They earned trust by laying out things that were all true while quietly hiding the truths that actually mattered.
So that if anything went wrong, they could wash their hands of it, leaving the responsibility with the person who had failed to understand what was going on properly.
"Move."
Was she bitter about that? Not really. The world was a palace where the cunning had an easier time prospering than the honest, and most people looked after themselves before anyone else.
So she didn’t care that Meister had tried to mislead her so cleverly, nor that she had nearly fallen for it. That was fine. It really was.
"Erm, the thing is… keeping the horses safe wasn’t the only thing we were asked to do……”
That itself was really fine.
After all, there had been so many cunning people over the past 20 years who had tried to use her or deceive her. So many. So very many.
"I won’t kill you. Move.”
"Even if you say that with a face like that……”
"Pamir of Blue Desire.”
But she couldn’t bear the thought that the last trace of her sister might be slipping farther away with every passing moment. She absolutely couldn’t accept the possibility that those remains might disappear from the world before she could reclaim them.
“I’m proving my patience by not snapping your neck and the necks of your friends. Don’t test me any further.”
And so Berserk wailed, scraping each word out from the depths of her very soul.
“Move.”
Gulp. Pamir of Blue Desire stepped back, his face completely pale. The path to the door opened.
Bang!
Berserk strode down that path without hesitation. Since she didn’t bother controlling her strength, the outer handle of the door completely shattered when she flung it open.
“Piper!”
“Huh, ye-yes!”
She went straight into the house where Meister was staying. The Great Master, who had been tinkering with something farther inside the living room, glanced at her. Tsk. Their eyes met, after which his pair narrowed as he clicked his tongue.
“I’m going beyond the Eternal Sanctuary. You should return to your tribe now.”
“Yes…What?”
“The food you have should be enough, right?”
But she had no time to spare for that thing. Killing him wouldn’t make her feel any better, and if only out of respect for the Demon Knight’s feelings in giving him that bracelet, she couldn’t cut his throat.
Berserk blatantly ignored the Great Master and gathered her belongings. Her improved weapon and her other weapons.
She needed nothing else.
"W-wait, Great Warrior. Why all of a sudden……?”
"Go."
With the piper’s skill, she should be able to make it back just fine. Even if she couldn’t, Berserk had no room to look after her every step of the way. Trusting the girl to manage on her own, Berserk turned away again.
"It’ll already be too late even if you leave now.”
"I know."
Creak. A single flake from the snow that had just begun to fall drifted through the open doorway.
"I’m still going.”
As always, it was freezingly cold snow.
* * *
Slash!
I slashed through the nearest ever-changing monster to loosen up my stiff body. The sensation that traveled into my palm was like cutting through water or piled up snow.
Ripple.
It was the same when I swung my sword again. With that same unpleasant feel in my hand, the mist I’d cut into four pieces soon joined back together.
"Hmm."
The fact that it prioritized restoring itself over attacking meant I was probably doing some damage…but maybe because it was without a fixed shape, slashing attacks didn’t seem particularly effective either. Still, since it cared more about healing itself than attacking, it looked like I could at least buy some time by stopping its movements.
Uwooooogh!
Meanwhile, the monster let out a cry like the sound of wind and came toward me. It looked like black fog trying to eat a person.
"Mister!”
"Don’t worry.”
It wasn't really that fast, though. I casually avoided its attack by taking a step back. Snap. I flicked my fingers as I retreated, sending sparks into the air.
Fwoooosh!
Kiiiiieee!!
"Hmm."
Oh, this thing sure burns well.
Watching the monster disappear into the flames, I pointed a finger in another direction. I didn’t actually need to point to make fire, but having a reference point made it easier to decide where to intercept.
Five monsters a short distance away evaporated without even leaving ash behind.
"I think we should give up on killing them by slashing or stabbing.”
Good. That should’ve bought us enough time to share what we’d learned. With that thought, I turned toward the others. They were just forming a circle around Aerotelk.
Though calling it a formation would be quite generous. Deathbringer and Daniel were really just standing beside Aerotelk.
"Ugh. Is that so……?”
"Hmm… This is getting complicated.”
"Then, Adventurer, do you think purification will work?”
"I’m not sure, but I think it probably will."
That was basically how purification worked in the first place, right? You overwhelmed and crushed opposing energy with a greater amount of Divine power.
Sp as long as those things were incompatible with Divine power, shouldn’t it work just fine? Though… it would probably take quite a lot of Divine power.
"Hmm, then I’ll try it.”
The Inquisitor seemed unsure herself, so she decided to test it directly. Apparently reluctant to start off with a high-cost purification spell, she first spread the Divine Power she’d gathered across her enormous shield.
"Hmph!”
Baaam!
Though the way she attacked with the shield was pretty shocking in its own way.
I couldn’t help but stare as she gripped the edge of the shield and smashed it down on the monster’s head, or I guess, its upper part. A few older reaction memes floated through my mind.
"Hmm. Physical impact really doesn’t seem to work…no matter what kind of energy you use.”
"They’re a different species, but I think we should fight them the same way we handle ordinary amorphous Demons.”
"Inquisitor Daniel is right.”
Huh. It didn't even make a clang sound. I looked with some pity at the monster’s flattened upper half.
Right now, it was perfectly still, like a mob stunned after taking a hit to the head. It had no head and no brain either, so I had no idea why it had frozen up like that.
Kiiiieeek!
"Purification is definitely more effective.”
In any case, the Inquisitor eventually gave up on physical attacks as well and switched to purification as her main method. Another monster was sent off to the great beyond.
"Wizard Aerotelk, do you know how to fight amorphous Demons?”
"I do. But it’ll take longer than whatever method you know.”
"We’ll have to accept that. Then please handle it.”
"Wh-what? What am I supposed to do? I have no idea.”
"Ah, I guess you won’t be much help. Just protect the wizard.”
"Uh…You mean buy time for them to cast?”
"Yes. You catch on quickly.”
Meanwhile, the two whose abilities were a poor match for these enemies had managed to find a way through somehow. Even if it wasn’t a solution they’d come up with themselves, it was still proof that bringing along the suspicious wizard had been worth it.
When it came to utility, there really was no class that could beat a wizard.
"Have you three found a method as well?”
"Ah, yes."
"Then let’s divide the area. Please take this side. Adventurer, you can……”
"I’ll go this way.”
"Yes. Please do. I’ll take this side.”
Anyway, now that everyone had found a way to fight, all that remained was dividing up the work.
We split the area into three parts shaped like pizza slices. One for me, one for the Inquisitor, and one for the other three. The ratio was approximately 2:2:0.5.
"Life sure is hard when you’re not a Knight……”
"It can't be helped. This isn’t the kind of environment where we can afford recklessness.”
It seemed like Deathbringer and Daniel were newly reminded of how unfair the world was, but what could I do? Like Daniel said, acting reckless here could get you killed instantly.
"I understand wanting to act bold, but don’t get hurt.”
For that reason, I gave Deathbringer a light pat on the shoulder, bundled up tightly in layers against the biting cold, the young man flinched. Had that been too much encouragement? I regretted it a little.
"...Yes."
"Good."
Maybe I should be more careful next time. It’d been so long since I could just act however I wanted, so I was having some trouble figuring out where the line was.
Swallowing that thought, I dragged myself toward the area assigned to me. It was the direction of the end of the world.
Fwoooosh!
Kiiieee!
I burned every black mist monster that came into my field of vision. Making fire burned through a surprising amount of Arcane Power, but considering that normal attacks did no damage, I didn't have much of a choice here. The only solace was that there weren’t that many of them.
'Still, compared to ordinary beats, it feels like they take more Arcane Power per area… Am I right?'
「Yes, you are.」
'Do they have some kind of resistance or something?'
「Probably they do? This is my first time seeing anything like them as well, so I’m not really sure……」
'That does make sense.'
These things seemed to only appear here, so how would Faust know about them? There was no way he’d ever had reason to come here before I did.
'Hey, Demon. Do you know?'
But this one should. I spoke to Wrath for the first time in a while.
[...You sure got some nerve. You lock someone up and then ask them something like that?]
'If you don’t know, forget it.'
[They’re cosmic specks. They crawl around between dimensions, so naturally they have a high resistance. You’ll just have to deal with it.]
The moment I tried to back off without a shred of attachment, Wrath hurriedly continued. I sure wondered what went through her head, doing this every time when she knew perfectly well how I’d react.
'Any easier way to kill them?'
[No. What you’re doing now is the best and easiest method. Physical force doesn’t work on those things at all.]
Or was she hoping I’d humor her even a little? Hah. What a shameless bastard.
'Fine. If there isn’t, then whatever.'
Seriously, no shame and no help at all. I burned away another cosmic speck approaching from the side, then took another step forward. Thunk. Something hit the toe of my boot.
"......?"
What is this? I looked back and forth between the empty air in front of me and the toe of my boot being stopped by that same empty air. I couldn't see or feel anything, which made it all the stranger.
「What’s wrong?」
'No.......'
Was something there? Uncertain, I reached out a hand. Thunk. Just like my boot, my hand was blocked by something transparent. It felt like there was a clear plastic panel right in front of me.
「Ah, it’s blocked.」
"...So this is why they call it the end of the world.”
I raised my other hand and placed it against the same spot. Through my gloves, I could feel a perfectly flat wall with no curve whatsoever. It obviously wasn't just in the palace where I was touching it. It had to stretch endlessly to both sides.
"What is this? Some kind of invisible field boundary……?”
If the world had simply cut off, or there were some impassable canyons, or an endless sea spread out beyond it… I think I could’ve accepted that kind of ‘end’ more easily.
Using an invisible wall just felt weird.
I ran my hand over the smooth surface a bit longer, then pulled it away. Someone might think I was miming or something. That was the only excuse I could come up with right now.
「So… This is what the end of the world looks like. It’s kind of…amazing. Everywhere else just has ocean.」
'Yeah.'
「...If you kept going forever across those oceans, would you reach a place similar to this one too?」
'Uh…who knows? I don’t know either. Doesn’t this world have some less-evil version of Columbus?'
「Columbus?」
Well, no matter how I felt about it, this was just how the world had been made, I suppose. Since I couldn’t go any farther, I was more or less done hunting the cosmic specks in this area.
'Ah. Columbus was a man who sailed for mouths because he thought India was on the other side of the sea, only to end up finding a completely different continent. I don’t really like him, though, because of the conquests and massacres he committed of the people that originally lived there.’
So, what now?
'If you're that curious, why don’t you go see for yourself someday?'
「...Me?」
'Yeah. I’ve had about enough of the ocean for one lifetime……'
「...I’m not great with the ocean either. I get really dizzy from seasickness.」
'Ah, right…… Then let’s leave that one to someone else.'
What else was there to do? I had to go help the others.
'Instead…whether you put together a book or whatever, why not tell other people about this place as well? You’d have to keep the important stuff a secret, of course.’
「So we…really need to?」
'You were just curious about what lay beyond the sea yourself. How would you know whether there’s someone somewhere in the world who’s curious about the land beyond the Eternal Sanctuary? Hell, even if you told the Young Lord of Munmund about this place, I bet he’d get curious about it. I bet he’d get so interested that he'll start bombarding you with all sorts of questions.'
「He was pretty curious about the outside world…… But I think Gretchen would be better suited to doing that than me.」
'That won’t do. Once all this is over, I’m becoming Ordinary Villager A.'
I turned toward the area assigned to the other three. In the distance, I could faintly see the black river diagonally flowing farther and farther away from me.
'And besides, ordinary villagers usually have absolutely no idea what the end of the world looks like, you know? Once you know that, you can never be an ordinary villager.'
Before long, dots appeared among the black river. As I drew closer, those dots grew larger, their outlines splitting into two kinds. People and mist.
'So you tell them.'
「.......」
'The Young Lord would really like that after all.'
The two kinds of shadows charged toward one another.
The heretic inquisitor’s heavy swordsmanship. The rogue’s swift thrusts. And finally……
"......?"
The moment I realized there were more mist monsters than I’d expected, I shot forward. But something reached the monsters before I did.
"How amazing."
The instant an utterly ordinary iron sword swept through the black mist around it in a graceful arc, a strange sense of deja vu struck me.
That movement…where have I seen it before?
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